Video footage shows space junk fireball over Australia

Stunning fireball seen over Australia ‘was the remnants of a Russian rocket taking a missile warning system into space’, expert claims

  • Video footage shows orange fireball lighting up the southern Australian skies 
  • Experts say it was an object from the launch of a Russian intelligence satellite
  • The Kremlin’s new constellation of satellites will trace ballistic missile launches

A huge fireball seen over southern parts of Australia is believed to be the remnants of a Russian rocket taking a missile warning system into space.

The fireball, which lit up the Australian skies at the weekend, was debris from a Russian military satellite that burnt up as it entered Earth’s atmosphere and crashed into the ocean.

The flying object descended leaving a plume of orange smoke and could be seen from parts of central Victoria and northern Tasmania down under. 

Experts say it came from the launch of a satellite for Russia‘s EKS satellite network on Friday, which provides the Kremlin with early warnings of ballistic missile launches. 

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Incredible moment a comet shoots across the Australian sky in a spectacular display as space debris breaks up

The relatively slow speed of the object, which has been captured in stunning video footage, indicates it was likely to be debris, according to one expert.

‘The slow speed, about six kilometres per second, is a very tell-tale sign that it is space junk,’ Jonti Horner, professor of astrophysics at the University of Southern Queensland, told the ABC

Extra-terrestrial material such as fragments of a comet or asteroid would move much more quickly, he said.

A chunk of space debris this size also coincides with the successful launch of Russia’s Soyuz-2 carrier rocket from Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northwestern Russia.

One expert said that the fireball, seen by Australians at the weekend, descended too slowly for it to be an asteroid or space rocks

One expert said that the fireball, seen by Australians at the weekend, descended too slowly for it to be an asteroid or space rocks

Russian Satellite system provides advanced warning of nuclear attack

The new EKS satellite constellation is Russia’s ‘Unified Space System’ for outer space intelligence. 

The programme of Russian early warning satellites 

They are a replacement for the US-KMO and US-K satellites of the Oko programme, which began in the 1970s. 

These new satellites identify ballistic missile launches from outer space and complement early warning radars.

This gives advance notice of a nuclear attack and would provide information to the A-135 missile defence system deployed around Moscow. 

Six satellites are planned to be initially orbited, with the first launched in November 2015. 

Russian Aerospace Forces operational crew launched the carrier rocket with the Russian Ministry of Defense’s Kosmos-2546 military satellite onboard, the Russian space agency Roscosmos confirmed.

Soyuz-2 is carrying a top secret payload that’s believed to be the fourth satellite for the country’s EKS OiBU missile-warning network, according to RussianSpaceWeb.com.

The primary purpose of the system of satellites is ‘to detect and track missile launches around the world, it said.

The Soyuz rocket lifted off and separated over the course of four stages, leaving discarded debris behind it to float back to Earth – not just near Australia.

For example, Soyuz-2’s four booster rockets were jettisoned around two minutes into the flight and likely fell around 220 miles (350 km) away near the Vychegda River, Russia.

During the second stage, meanwhile, the payload fairing split into two halves. Fragments probably fell in the Western-Siberian Plain, along the Om River, north of Kazakhstan. 

The Soyuz-2 rocket booster carrying the Kosmos-2546 military satellite of the Russian Defence Ministry

The Soyuz-2 rocket booster carrying the Kosmos-2546 military satellite of the Russian Defence Ministry

Russia's updated satellite constellation will provide the Kremlin with early warning about launches of ballistic missiles that could spell a nuclear attack

Russia’s updated satellite constellation will provide the Kremlin with early warning about launches of ballistic missiles that could spell a nuclear attack

Nine minutes into the flight, during the third and final stage of the separation, the Aussie-bound fragment entered a trajectory before re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere.

RussianSpaceWeb said that any surviving debris from the third stage should have fallen into the Pacific Ocean, southeast of Tasmania, where it was captured on film.

Soon afterwards, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced the successful delivery of the satellite. 

There are now reportedly four satellites that make up the EKS system in orbit, with at least another two to be launched.

The entire anti-ballistic missile (ABM) system of Russian early warning satellites will replace a series of outdated spacecraft that has been launched since the 1970s.

Together, they will give advance notice to Russian intelligence of ballistic missile launches – those missile with a high, arching trajectory – from outer space in the case of a nuclear attack.  

WHAT IS SPACE JUNK? MORE THAN 170 MILLION PIECES OF DEAD SATELLITES, SPENT ROCKETS AND FLAKES OF PAINT POSE ‘THREAT’ TO SPACE INDUSTRY

There are an estimated 170 million pieces of so-called ‘space junk’ – left behind after missions that can be as big as spent rocket stages or as small as paint flakes – in orbit alongside some US$700 billion (£555bn) of space infrastructure.

But only 22,000 are tracked, and with the fragments able to travel at speeds above 16,777 mph (27,000kmh), even tiny pieces could seriously damage or destroy satellites.

However, traditional gripping methods don’t work in space, as suction cups do not function in a vacuum and temperatures are too cold for substances like tape and glue.

Grippers based around magnets are useless because most of the debris in orbit around Earth is not magnetic.

Around 500,000 pieces of human-made debris (artist’s impression) currently orbit our planet, made up of disused satellites, bits of spacecraft and spent rockets

Most proposed solutions, including debris harpoons, either require or cause forceful interaction with the debris, which could push those objects in unintended, unpredictable directions.

Scientists point to two events that have badly worsened the problem of space junk.

The first was in February 2009, when an Iridium telecoms satellite and Kosmos-2251, a Russian military satellite, accidentally collided.

The second was in January 2007, when China tested an anti-satellite weapon on an old Fengyun weather satellite.

Experts also pointed to two sites that have become worryingly cluttered.

One is low Earth orbit which is used by satnav satellites, the ISS, China’s manned missions and the Hubble telescope, among others.

The other is in geostationary orbit, and is used by communications, weather and surveillance satellites that must maintain a fixed position relative to Earth.